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California Attorney General Kamala Harris engaged

Leah Garchik| on
April 7, 2014

Attorney General Kamala Harris is ecstatic after the opening of the Bayview Child Health Center in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014. The facility combines the services of a health clinic, wellness center and child abuse prevention center under one roof. less

Attorney General Kamala Harris is ecstatic after the opening of the Bayview Child Health Center in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014. The facility combines the services of a health clinic, ... more

Attorney General Kamala Harris is ecstatic after the opening of the Bayview Child Health Center in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014. The facility combines the services of a health clinic, wellness center and child abuse prevention center under one roof. less

Attorney General Kamala Harris is ecstatic after the opening of the Bayview Child Health Center in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014. The facility combines the services of a health clinic, ... more

The state attorney general is making some personal legal plans. Kamala Harris, who has been seeing Los Angeles lawyer Douglas Emhoff for "about a year," she said Sunday, is engaged to be married.

Emhoff did the classic proposal thing - even dropping to one knee - in her South of Market apartment on March 27. Harris, who is sporting a "round, simple" diamond and platinum engagement ring, says they haven't quite set a date, but it'll probably be within six months and it'll probably be intimate. "I don't believe in long engagements," she said.

Emhoff is partner in charge of the L.A. law firm Venable LLP. The firm's website says he has "significant complex commercial litigation experience, particularly in media, advertising and entertainment litigation matters."

Harris' description, when asked the best things about him, stressed other areas. He is "incredibly smart," she said, and "he has the best sense of humor."

Emhoff was born in New York and went to law school at the University of Southern California. Married once before, he divorced four years ago and has two "beautiful kids," said Harris, one in college and one in high school.

The two met on a blind date, set up by a close friend of Harris'. They are both 49 years old, he older by a week.

She travels back and forth between Northern and Southern California for her work, as does he (his firm has an office in San Francisco). They plan to be bi-Californian, living in both places at once.

Harris, who was district attorney in San Francisco before being elected to statewide office, is known, among many things, as an official who sticks to her principles, for her staunch support of homeowners victimized by financial institutions perpetrating mortgage abuses, and her refusal to argue for the state in support of Proposition 8, which had banned same-sex marriage before being struck down.

Emhoff, says the law firm's site, "has particular skills in alternative dispute resolution (negotiation, mediation, arbitration) across varied forums. His clients have come to rely on his insightful, dispute avoidance strategy." Nonetheless, it is unclear: Giants or Dodgers?